Kuwait Looks to Foreign Investment to help with $111 Billion Modernisation Plans

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s website, Kuwait, the fourth-biggest oil producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), was the lowest recipient of foreign direct investment among the six Gulf Cooperation Council states in 2010 with US$6.5bn. Saudi Arabia, the biggest Arab economy, was the highest with US$170.5bn, followed by the UAE with US$76.2bn.In an attempt to rectify this, the Kuwait government intends to modify its foreign direct investment laws in order to make it far easier…Read more...

By Gregory Viscusi The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' agreement to cut production ends two years of Saudi Arabia's pump-at-will policies, which had sunk oil prices to the joy of drivers in the Western world and the consternation of central bankers seeking to stave off deflation. With the reversal of that stance, a whole new set of winners and losers will emerge. Still, reaction on oil markets has been muted. OPEC can't control the 60 percent of world production outside its membership and earlier accords have fallen apart.

OPEC oil production was little changed in April near the highest level since November 2012 as Saudi Arabia pumped 10 million barrels a day.
Production by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries slipped 1,000 barrels to 31.295 million a day this month, according to a Bloomberg survey of oil companies, producers and analysts. Last month’s total was revised 267,000 barrels higher to 31.296 million a day, mostly because of a change to the Saudi estimate.

OPEC members need to stop bickering over output curbs or risk the group becoming irrelevant to global oil markets, according to an analyst who predicted the biggest price crash in a generation.
It’s in the interest of all producers to reach a deal that’s aimed at stabilizing prices, which are 61 per cent lower than their 2014-highs, said Gary Ross, executive chairman at PIRA Energy Group, which is now a part of S&P Global Platts.

After hanging on for almost a year, the U.S. shale oil industry is on the brink of complete capitulation. The reason for its impending downfall is simple: the lowest cost producer always wins.
In this instance the most profitable producers are Saudi Arabia and its close Gulf Arab allies who effectively control the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

OPEC policy on crude production will ensure a crash in the U.S. shale industry, a Russian oil tycoon said.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries kept output targets unchanged at a meeting in Vienna Thursday even after this year’s slump in the oil price caused by surging supply from U.S shale fields.

West Texas Intermediate crude dropped to the lowest intraday level in three years as Saudi Arabia cut prices for crude exports to U.S. customers amid speculation that stockpiles increased. Brent extended losses in London.

Oil is pulling away from the market’s biggest storm in seven years.
A measure of price volatility has tumbled from the highest level since January 2009 as the market frenzy eases amid a potential pact between the world’s largest producers to freeze output.